I was talking to a sixth-grade class the other day when one of the students asked: “How do you make a character in a book, you know, all the different things and feelings she has?”
Today is the day my newest book, Lost in the Empire City, will be published. People often ask me, “How does it feel to have a book published?”
Logic. While we may not think of the concept as having anything to do with fiction, it is not just a key aspect of narrative, but particularly important to readers.
What does a good title have that makes it good? Lots of notions here. The truth is, as any author will tell you, a good title is hard to compose.
I suspect that there are countless American family stories akin to this one, the journey to point of departure, the voyage itself, the arrival, and early years of tragedy and/or triumph.
It’s not really a surprise then, that on my shelves I have a few — very few — books from my childhood. Read this week’s essay about those books.
Last night didn’t start well. It began when my wife and I sat down to a new soup recipe. That soup took two hours to make, but only about thirty seconds to realize, “This is awful.”
“I am working on a new book. It’s so new it has no title, and to be honest, I’m not sure what will happen. Certainly, no ending is in sight.”
With the return of school — has always meant the beginning of the year for me. Never mind January One. As far as I am concerned, this is the time when the year truly starts.
This summer, I invited twelve successful writers to comment on one of their recent books and to give some advice about writing. For you teachers and librarians and new writers there is enough wealth of insights and ideas to suggest a re-reading. And using.